Dealing with wrong input

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Lars Morsink
Lars Morsink on 3 Sep 2019
Commented: Lars Morsink on 3 Sep 2019
How do I avoid this error? I would like for users, if they enter a string instead of number to told "Those are not the instructions, please try again"
Screenshot 2019-09-03 at 12.40.08.png
  4 Comments
Rik
Rik on 3 Sep 2019
Please post your code as code, not as a screenshot. You can find an explanation of the layout tools here.
Lars Morsink
Lars Morsink on 3 Sep 2019
clc,
clear
Secret_Number = randi(100);
Attempts = 0;
Max_Attempts = 10;
Guess = -1; % The variable needs to be established to avoid an error in the 'while...end' loop and -1 guarantees that it is not equal to the secret number
disp (' ')
disp ('Instructions: Guess a number between 1 and 100. You have 10 guesses and a hint after each guess. Good luck!')
while (Attempts < Max_Attempts) && (Secret_Number ~= Guess)
disp (' ')
Guess = input('Please enter your guess: ');
Attempts = Attempts + 1;
if Secret_Number == Guess
disp (' ')
disp ('Congratulations! You guessed the secret number!')
Attempts
elseif (Guess > Secret_Number) && (Attempts < Max_Attempts);
disp (' ')
disp ('Hint: Guess lower')
else
disp (' ')
disp ('Hint: Guess higher')
end
end
if Attempts == Max_Attempts & (Secret_Number ~= Guess);
disp (' ')
disp ('Game Over! You ran out of guesses. Please play again.')
Secret_Number
end

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Answers (2)

Stephen23
Stephen23 on 3 Sep 2019
Edited: Stephen23 on 3 Sep 2019
str = '';
num = NaN;
while isnan(num)
num = str2double(input([str,'Enter a number: '],'s'));
str = 'Please try again! ';
end
And tested:
Enter a number: hello
Please try again! Enter a number: world
Please try again! Enter a number: 42

Nicolas B.
Nicolas B. on 3 Sep 2019
Edited: Nicolas B. on 3 Sep 2019
Okay, then I would use the exception catching method:
str = '';
num = NaN;
while isnan(num)
try
num = input('Please enter your guess: ');
catch
disp('You must give a valid number!');
num = NaN;
end
end
  1 Comment
Rik
Rik on 3 Sep 2019
That's also possible, although I think it would make slightly more sense to use Stephen's method, because then it also isn't possible to provide a variable name.
If you define a=9; before your loop, you can enter a in the prompt and it will pass the test. With Stephen's code, that is not possible.

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